Decidedly Sweet Dreams
by shmobeline
Summary: Numair wakes to find that Daine is having a nightmare... Or is she? In which Numair is not a very good judge of night-time noises.


A/N: Set in the interim between the prologue of Realms of the Gods and the first chapter.

_Decidedly Sweet Dreams_

Numair shifted into another position on the hard ground, paying only a little attention to the sounds of the darkness, and gradually realising with annoyance that he was no longer asleep. He turned over again after a few moments and tried to resettle himself, but try as he might he couldn't get comfortable. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and glared up at the star-filled sky, wondering what had woken him.

It was a balmy night and he wasn't too hot or too cold. His wards weren't blaring alarms in his head, so they weren't in danger of an attack. A glance towards Daine's side of their little camp told him the wildmage was still there, and so equally his wards weren't sending him any warnings that she'd wandered off somewhere. He hadn't expected her to – she was more sensible than to walk alone at night with the threat of an immortal attack having become so much greater – but Daine's sense of compassion had led her to take foolhardy risks before, and Numair was taking precautions. The horses were dozing quietly a few yards away, and seemed to sense nothing wrong. Numair mentally shrugged and put his ill-timed waking down to simple misfortune.

With the perimeter still intact and everything quiet, Numair was about to give himself over to exhaustion once more, thinking wistfully of his bed in Corus, when he heard a soft whimpering sort of sound coming from Daine's direction. He craned his head up to look at her. She was facing away from him, and though he couldn't see any movement under the cloak that covered her he could hear clearly the small noises that he thought sounded something akin to distress.

If she was having a nightmare he couldn't blame her. The last few weeks had been particularly gruelling, and they'd seen some sights Numair didn't think he'd ever be able to forget. They'd barely been given time to rest at the palace between diplomatic (though, more often simply defensive) assignments, and, while on the road, only able to grab snatches of the poor-quality sleep that travel afforded. That, paired with the traumatising events they'd been dealing with, took its toll, and Numair was frankly surprised he hadn't been shaken by any nightmares himself.

Thinking that it was always preferable to the sleeper to have nightmares cut short rather than let them play out, Numair threw back his cloak, rolled over onto his hands and knees, and stood. He stretched his shoulders with a groan and took the few steps it required to kneel at Daine's side.

Her breath was coming in short, quick pants, and though she wasn't thrashing about Numair could sense that she was beginning to panic in her dream. He didn't want to wake her suddenly, so he gently laid his hand on her arm just below her shoulder.

"Daine? Wake up, it's just a dream. You're okay," he said, shaking her just a little.

She didn't wake. In fact, her pace of breath only increased and began to be accompanied by soft, keening noises that sounded a bit like a drawn out 'nnn'.

Numair rolled her onto her back and, leaning over her, gripped both of her shoulders.

"Daine," he said more forcefully, but still trying not to shock her out of sleep. "Wake up!"

She frowned, her eyebrows drawn towards each other, but after a moment she relaxed and spoke a breathy word that sounded a_ lot_ like his name. Could he be part of her nightmare? Was she calling for his help?

He shook her shoulders, no longer worried about waking her gently. "Daine!" he all but shouted. Her eyes flashed open with a gasp and she stared up at him.

"Numair?" Daine asked, confused at her sudden entrance into the waking world. The tall mage was looming over her, his hands on her shoulders, a concerned look on his face. He smiled at her.

"It's okay, Magelet. You were just dreaming. We're okay," he said.

_Dreaming?_ she thought. And then, as the last vestiges of her dream returned to her, _Oh. __**Oh**__._

She could feel blood rushing to her cheeks as she recalled Numair kissing her face and neck as he did something particularly wonderful with his fingers a little lower down on her body. Her eyes widened as she stared up at Numair, the glowing embers of the fire casting red light against one half of his face, and throwing the other into deep shadow.

"Um..." was all she could manage in her embarrassment. She couldn't bear to have him so close after dreaming something like _that_. She lifted a hand and pushed lightly against his chest, and he quickly backed off. Daine sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. "I'm alright," she reassured him, and then in an attempt to shift the focus from her, "I'm sorry I woke you. You get little enough sleep as it is."

"Don't you dare try to take the blame, here, Daine. There is no blame. I don't mind losing sleep to make sure you're okay," he replied.

That only made her feel worse. He obviously thought she'd been having a nightmare, when really she'd been dreaming about... about _him_, and not in need of waking. Truly, she'd have preferred to stay asleep and avoid this whole embarrassing situation, even if it was only embarrassing for her. In any case, she'd been... well. Rather enjoying herself, even if it was a bit odd that it was _Numair_ featuring, but dreams were odd sorts of things.

What really made her worry was that she had been making loud enough sounds to wake Numair and prompt him to pull her out sleep as well. Sounds of pleasure must be vastly different to sounds of fear, and yet Numair seemed convinced that she'd been having a nightmare. Daine supposed that whatever she'd said, it mustn't've been too incriminating, otherwise she'd be having a very different conversation with her teacher.

Daine dropped her forehead to her knees. "It was just a silly dream," she muttered, not expecting him to hear. She could sense him hovering nearby, seemingly at a loss for what to do.

Eventually he placed a hand on her upper back, patting her lightly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked gently.

Daine sat bolt upright. "_No!_" she said adamantly, and she knew she was looking at Numair with an expression of mild horror. He withdrew his hand and frowned. Under his confusion Daine thought she could see a look of hurt, and her heart sank a little. "I mean," she began, placatingly, "It was nothing. Not worth talking about." She smiled at him, and he returned it briefly.

"If you're certain," he said, a hint of scepticism about his tone.

"I am," she replied. "I think I'll go back to sleep, now." Daine was keen not to draw this conversation out, and sleep seemed like an obvious way cut it short.

"Alright, Magelet," said Numair.

Daine settled back down, and pulled her cloak back over her, listening to Numair moving back to his bedroll and laying down.

"Thank you all the same, Numair," Daine said. He had, after all, only been trying to help.

There was a short pause, and then he said, "I'm just glad you're okay. Good night, Daine."

She murmured her 'good night', and allowed her mind to wander back to her dreamscape as she settled for sleep.


End file.
